Government agreement over the secondary legislation required to fully implement the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 is a watershed moment for agricultural innovation, according to partners in a major agricultural project.
Despite reports of last-minute calls from EU negotiators urging the UK to abandon the legislation, to bring it in line with EU rules, project partners remain confident that plans to conduct the first trials of precision-bred crops on commercial farms will proceed as intended.
With the signing in of secondary legislation in Parliament this week (May 13th), England is set to become the first country in Europe to enable the commercial production and marketing of precision-bred crops. The new regulatory framework, once in force, will allow farmers, scientists, and food manufacturers to harness the benefits of precision breeding using gene-editing techniques to develop crops with traits that could have occurred naturally or through traditional breeding, but achieved more efficiently and with greater precision.
The PROBITY project, led by the British On-Farm Innovation Network (BOFIN) and funded by Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme, brings together a consortium of 12 research institutes, universities, agri-tech companies and farming organisations. Together, they are leading the first farmer-led trials of precision-bred cereal crops on commercial farms across England.
Tom Allen-Stevens, managing director of BOFIN, said: “While the EU remains divided on precision breeding, our government has taken decisive action which will put English farmers and food producers on the front foot. It is a watershed moment for agricultural innovation in this country.
“The new legislation opens the door for us to trial and eventually adopt crop varieties that are more nutritious, resilient, and environmentally sustainable. By moving these innovations from the laboratory to the field, we are paving the way for a more productive and climate-resilient food system.
“We’re excited by the prospect of planting the first pre-commercial precision-bred cereals on English farms in spring 2026, pending PBO approval under the new regulations, and look forward to seeing these new varieties deliver real advantages for productivity and sustainability.”
Professor Nigel Halford of Rothamsted Research and technical lead for PROBITY, said: “It does feel like an historic moment to me, and I expect everyone who has been working on plant biotech while the UK/EU has been marginalised will feel the same. It is tremendously exciting, and I applaud everyone who has worked hard to get the legislation over the line. Most importantly it is a win for science and common sense.
“Whilst there was some concern that the secondary legislation on the Genetic Technologies (Precision Breeding) Act might get caught up in the UK/EU negotiations, the secondary legislation is now law, so any risk has passed. It always seemed unlikely that the UK government would allow the EU to dictate to us on food standards anyway, since that would put the UK in the position of having to comply with regulations it had no control over.”
The PROBITY project is trialling precision-bred cereal varieties including a low acrylamide wheat, a barley designed to reduce livestock methane emissions, and a potentially high-yielding wheat with larger grain size. These trials will not only demonstrate the real-world potential of precision-bred crops, but also ensure transparency and robust scrutiny by involving farmers, scientists, and food manufacturers at every stage.
BOFIN will shortly be recruiting growers to join the project as ‘PROBITY Pioneers’ and be paid to run a trial on their own farm. It will initially involve growing TILLING lines to test traits being introduced by gene editing.
To register interest visit www.bofin.org.uk
All press enquiries for PROBITY should be directed to Clemmie Gleeson clemmie@bofin.org.uk 07485 762841.